A Word on Political Endorsements

For me, the word is NOPE.

On July 7, the Internal Revenue Service announced that houses of worship are no longer at risk of losing their tax-exempt status if they endorse or oppose political candidates.

Let me assure you that this announcement will not affect St. Alban’s. Our parish will not be endorsing political candidates as long as I am your rector, regardless of what the IRS allows or prohibits. As I am writing this, I’m not aware of any statements made by our bishops in the Episcopal Diocese of North Carolina on the change in policy, but I have every reason to believe they expect Diocesan parishes and clergy to continue to refrain from endorsing political candidates.

The Church is not, and must never be, a partisan entity. The Church is the community of the New Covenant, described in the Bible as the Body of which Jesus Christ is the Head and of which all baptized persons are members called to restore all people to unity with God and each other in Christ through prayer, worship, proclamation of the Gospel, and the promotion of justice, peace, and love (see the Catechism in The Book of Common Prayer, page 854-855.) If we accept this understanding of the Church, then we must also accept that the Church cannot be the Church if it is aligned with a particular political party.

I believe that any ordained leader who endorses political candidates on behalf of their house of worship has made a grave theological error. They have conflated their own mind and voice with the Church’s mind and voice, which is in fact many minds and many voices. This is clergy elitism at its worst.

I know that the St. Alban’s community is not of one mind on every issue, and I deeply value this diversity of perspective. I want us to continue to be a community united by common worship, not common ideology, as is true to our Anglican heritage. I love that we can gather to pray and learn together, even when we might think differently or vote differently from one another. There are so few spaces left in our society where we have the opportunity to be in real community with folks who see the world differently from the way we see it. Even in faith communities where most folks tend to be aligned on political viewpoints, to allow the Church to become just another silo, where people feel they must agree on everything to belong, would be a shame. We can see through the Apostle Paul’s letters to early Christian communities that the Church has always been a diverse body. The early Christians didn’t shy away from wrestling with difficult topics, but with Paul’s help, they did seek unity through love and gentleness when they disagreed. There is much wisdom there! 

None of this means that the Church and its clergy must shy away from promoting the Gospel and pursuing justice, for doing so is part of our mission (see BCP reference above) but I believe these efforts must always be non-partisan if they are going to be faithful or effective. As I wrote recently to a parishioner, this “…doesn’t mean we will never touch on the important issues of the day, but that we must only do so humbly, in ways that help all of us to think about how the teachings of Christ may inform our thoughts and actions as people of faith. For example, when it comes to immigration, I believe our Holy Scriptures and our Baptismal Covenant allow for a variety of potential immigration policies, as long as all people are treated with basic dignity and fairness. So while I would never dream of using the pulpit to tell people how I think we should solve our immigration issues as a country, there may be times when it is appropriate to share how my heart is troubled by instances of people not being treated with dignity or fairness.”

Having articulated this nuance, let me also emphasize that my underlying belief is that the clergy’s primary role is to share the teachings of Jesus and our Holy Scriptures in such a way that members of the Church can come to their own understandings of how their faith might shape their engagement with politics. Yes, there are times when Jesus himself might be accused of sounding too “political” in his teaching and preaching, but he generally trusted folks to come to their own decisions, and the Church should do likewise.

To sum it all up: there are myriad ways to proclaim the Good News of God’s love without wading into partisanship, and that is what you can expect from the leaders of St. Alban’s going forward.

Yours in Christ,

Carmen